


Independence Christmas

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Unspeakably Complicated Circumstances [4]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-26 01:29:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6218284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry at the staff Christmas party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Independence Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd, raw, written in a couple of hours. Mostly fluffy. It's not great, but I wanted to write something for [](http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/profile)[minisinoo](http://minisinoo.livejournal.com/); adorable art from [](http://relayruvriting.livejournal.com/profile)[relayruvriting](http://relayruvriting.livejournal.com/) is [here](http://community.livejournal.com/twoseekers/253866.html#cutid1)

Harry still wasn't sure that he ought to have come to the Christmas party at all. He'd flooed in from the annual Weasley Christmas bash - complete with Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes fireworks set off by a painfully alone-looking George - several hours ago. Perhaps it was a good thing that there was an eight-hour time difference between America and England, but it really only gave him two hours to pass out on the sofa of his tiny basement flat before he pulled on a woefully pathetic jacket, cast a warming charm on himself, and headed for the staff Christmas Party at Independence House.

A graveyard shift worker at a home for troubled teenage girls was hardly the sort of work Hermione had had in mind when she suggested that Harry take some time off to explore the muggle world that he had nearly died to defend. Most of the world had expected him to stay in England and ride the wave of fame that came with being the Vanquisher of Voldemort (the alliteration made him feel like a nursery rhyme character); Hermione and the Weasleys expected him to fall into a whirlwind romance with Ginny, sweep her off into an adventure in the muggle world, and then return triumphant when everything died down.

Harry had planned to do nothing of the sort. He left flowers on a series of graves - Remus and Tonks, Sirius, Professor Dumbledore, even Severus Snape - and then caught an international portkey to Las Vegas. From there he played roulette with a map and found himself in Cedarville, a small rural town up in the mountains that actually displayed all four of the seasons.

Professor McGonagall - now the headmistress of Hogwarts - wrote Harry glowing reference letters when he asked, and he found a job working night security at a facility for troubled teenage girls. Understandably, most of the staff were girls, and they were initially dubious at Harry joining them for night security - he was still a bit thin and undersized for his age - but he pulled his weight with the paperwork and was good with the girls during their morning chores, and soon he had struck up a decent friendship with the rest of the night staff.

A decent friendship wasn't much help when he hovered in the corner of the den at the facility, watching all the others mingle. The morning staff he only knew vaguely, mostly because he saw them during shift changes (for which they were habitually late), and he knew the swing staff even more minimally. He sipped some bubbling apple juice and pretended not to watch Chantelle and her boyfriend Mark holding hands and laughing at something someone from the swing staff said. Chantelle and Mark were both night staff with Harry. Chantelle reminded him of Hermione in the way she was no-nonsense and practical, but Chantelle was far more blunt and much more sanguine about breaking rules. She had been with Mark for as long as anyone in town knew, and the residents of the facility made it a point to ask Mark when he was going to buy a ring for Chantelle.

As the residents weren't meant to know anything about staff members' personal lives, Mark always demurred politely and steered the conversation toward something more neutral.

Chantelle spotted Harry first. She waved him over, and he peeled himself away from the wall.

"Hey you, when did you get here?" Chantelle grinned at him and leaned back against Mark.

"A few minutes ago," Harry said. He'd actually been there for a good twenty minutes, but he was good at remaining unnoticed.

"We had a great time last night gaming, man," Mark said. "You should have been there."

Due to Dudley's penchant for video games, Harry steered clear of them. During the spare hours of his shift - of which there were many once paperwork was done - he dabbled in new hobbies and tried out many of the muggle things that had interested him but been forbidden during his childhood.

"Video games aren't really my thing," Harry said. "But I'm glad you had fun."

Chantelle cast him a sympathetic look. Among the staff it was no secret that Harry was an orphan who lived on his own.

"You shouldn't be alone on Christmas," Chantelle said.

Harry shrugged one shoulder. He couldn't really explain that he'd been with friends and family back in England mere hours ago, or that he wouldn't be alone on Christmas, not really.

"Who's keeping an eye on the girls?" Harry asked, casting a pointed glance around the empty den.

"That day staff you've never met," Chantelle said.

Mark nodded. "Yeah - I'm surprised you two haven't run into each other, what with both of you being British and all."

Chantelle smacked him lightly on the arm. "Honestly, Harry works nights and Cedric works days. And England isn't a village where everyone knows everyone."

"That's true," Harry said.

"Anyway," Mark said, "we weren't playing video games - we were playing D&D, which is way better than a video game. You'd have a lot of fun playing a wizard or sorcerer I think - you like magic, right?"

"I love magic." Harry said it simply and honestly, but Mark didn't catch Harry's tone.

"See? It would save you from being a hermit on your nights off." Mark offered Harry a winning smile. "How many models can you build before you go nuts, right? Chanti and I game with some cool cats."

"No one calls anyone 'cats' anymore," a familiar male voice said.

Harry turned.

"Cedric!" Chantelle cried. "Get back up to the entertainment room and guard the girls. Only promises of endless hours to adore your pretty face kept them from invading our party."

Cedric laughed, and his face lit up. "Yes, well, pretty face I may be, good company during a chick flick I am not."

Harry took another sip of his bubbly juice so no one would notice when he swallowed hard at Cedric's smile. The older boy stood beside Mark and Chantelle with one hand in his pocket, head tipped slightly to one side, nodding and chuckling as Mark recounted some wild D&D story. Harry sipped his juice again to stave off the sudden dryness of his mouth. Cedric was handsome and too intelligent to be oblivious about it, but somehow his carelessness about his own good looks - alchemic good luck, he called it - made him all the more attractive. Anger-white jealousy twisted in Harry's chest when several of the other day-staff girls drifted toward the conversation, casting bright, flirtatious smiles up at Cedric.

"Who _is_ watching the girls, then?" Harry asked, even though that portion of the conversation was long past and probably long forgotten.

"Nicola," Cedric said.

Nicola was an Amazon of a tomboy who was even less enjoyable company during a chick flick than most blokes were.

"How did you convince her to do that?" Mark asked.

Chantelle snickered. "Even our proud tomboy isn't immune to a pretty face."

"Actually," Cedric said, "I bribed her with a secret."

"Oh?" Chantelle asked. "What sort of secret?"

"The sort that no one else knows," Cedric said.

"Like what you've got hidden under that scarf?" Mark asked, gesturing to the fluffy yellow-and-black scarf Cedric wore.

Cedric wore scarves all the time, indoors and out, no matter what the season, and his scarf collection was legendary among the day staff.

"No," he said. "That secret someone else already has the key to. I promised Nicola a different one."

"I think," Harry said, and paused deliberately to drink the last of his juice, "that your pretty face attracted a vampire, and now you have to hide the bite marks."

"Wrong holiday for that, Potter," Chantelle said. She grinned cheekily at Cedric. "I bet our staff's prince charming has spent a little too much time under the mistletoe, if you know what I mean."

Harry and Cedric both blushed, and Chantelle laughed.

"I forgot how polite and proper and easily embarrassed you English boys could be, but blushing on cue - that's a brand new one," she said.

Mark nudged Cedric with his shoulder and said, "Tell Harry that he should totally come play D&D with us. That time you played with us you had an awesome time, right?"

Cedric's grey gaze - sparkling with mirth and something else - met Harry's. "Yes, I had a wonderful time. I played a wizard and was absolutely grand at it. I bet you'd make a fantastic wizard."

Harry went to sip some juice and realized his champagne flute was empty. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Come sometime and watch," Chantelle said. "You wouldn't have to play. Plenty of people have fun watching."

"Or you could come hang out with us, Cedric," Stephanie, one of the swing staff, said. She smiled up at him from beneath lowered lashes and added, "We always have a great time."

Cedric's brow furrowed. "Mark and Chanti weren't talking about me - they were talking about how Harry needs more of a social life. Don't you, Harry?" He raised his eyebrows at Harry, and that mirth in those grey eyes was almost mocking. "Spending all that time alone in your basement isn't healthy."

Harry lifted his chin defiantly. "What I do alone in my basement is no one's business but my own."

"If you're that defensive about it, you _definitely_ need to get out more," Chantelle said.

Harry opened his mouth to defend himself again, but then one of the supervisors was calling for the white elephant gift exchange. The staff arranged themselves in a circle on the den carpet.

"Come sit with me," Stephanie called out to Cedric.

He smiled apologetically. "Sorry - I didn't bring a gift. Let me fetch Nicola." He turned and dashed up the stairs, his long legs carrying him swiftly, and a few moments later Nicola appeared, looking relieved to have escaped the chick flick. Stephanie looked put out - and slightly intimidated - when Nicola took the empty spot next to her and laid out her gift.

Harry had never done this white elephant business before and was amused at all the stealing that went on. He was surprised that his gift, an old wizarding music box that the charms had worn off of, was stolen multiple times before it was taken in by a rightful owner. He ended up with a 500-piece puzzle that featured the Great Wall of China. Mrs. Figg was rather partial to puzzles, and Harry had learnt the patience to put together a puzzle from her. A light-hearted squabble broke out between Chantelle and Mark over an old hand-held Pacman game, and while the rest of the staff took sides and cheered either one or the other on, Harry noticed Cedric slip down to one of the supervisors and have a quick conversation with her. The supervisor, expression annoyed, followed Cedric back up the stairs.

Perhaps Cedric's charms were wearing off of the residents.

The gift exchange ended with Chantelle victorious, and the circle broke up and reformed into the previous cliques and conversations that had existed before it. Nicola, Mark, and some of the other night staff crowded around to watch Chantelle play her game.

Harry headed into the kitchen to fetch himself some more sparkling juice. He poured and contemplated that the stuff was probably already flat, when a flash of yellow and black caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned slightly and saw that Stephanie had Cedric cornered beneath the stairs beside the cleaning cupboard, out of sight of the rest of the party.

Stephanie was leaning into Cedric too close for propriety, and Cedric was arching away as far back as he could, attempting to maintain his good manners as he told her to shove off.

Harry's grip on the champagne flute tightened.

Stephanie pointed up at a conveniently-placed sprig of mistletoe, then darted forward and kissed Cedric.

The champagne flute cracked in Harry's hand.

So this was what it felt like for Dean Thomas.

Harry swore under his breath, cast a quick _Reparo!_ and another charm to stop the bleeding. Then he had to cast another charm to clean all the blood off of himself, his glass, and the floor, and when he looked up again Stephanie had Cedric pressed against the cleaning cupboard door and was unwinding his scarf with desperate, seeking hands, her mouth moving rapidly toward his throat.

Harry set his glass aside and stepped out of the kitchen.

"Hey - not at work --" he began.

Seeker-quick reflexes from Cedric sent Stephanie stumbling back, but it was too late - she had loosed the scarf.

Harry stood in the doorway, green eyes furious, expression dangerously blank.

The others heard the commotion and came to see what it was all about.

They stared at Cedric's scarf dangling from Stephanie's fingertips and wondered what a nice boy like Cedric could have done, that someone would try to slit his throat.

The scar was puckered and pink, shiny in the fluorescent light, and might have, as the cliché went, given Cedric another smile, and at the time it was made it must have nearly killed him.

Harry knew that scar. It was the remnant of a Death Eater's _sectumsempra_ and some very quick healing work on someone else's part.

Cedric looked neither embarrassed nor ashamed, merely quietly angry and pained in a way the others didn't understand.

"Cedric," Chantelle began.

Harry pushed past the others and moved toward Cedric. He snatched the Hufflepuff scarf from Stephanie, who was gaping and stammering like an idiot, and reached up to tuck it back around Cedric's bare throat with familiar, easy motions.

"Thanks," Cedric said, and smoothed a thumb over the line of Harry's cheekbone.

The other staff shifted uneasily at the tension that skyrocketed from that single act.

"Welcome," Harry said, leaning into the caress, and Nicola said,

"I knew it. I knew you were too nice and handsome to be single."

Cedric glanced at her and said, "Consider us square, then: one secret for one hour watching the girls."

Nicola crossed her arms over her chest and said, "I hardly think it counts as a secret if everyone knows."

As if on cue, the rest of the staff averted their gazes, as if they could pretend they hadn't seen anything and therefore did not know.

Stephanie looked utterly shell-shocked.

Drudging up some Hermione-earned manners, Harry said, "I was just pouring more of the sparkling apple juice. Anyone want some?"

Chantelle and Mark, the first to recover after Nicola, nodded and followed Harry and Cedric into the kitchen.

"How was Christmas with the Weasleys?" Cedric asked.

"First Christmas after the war?" Harry said softly. "It was good and painful all at once. It's a bit scary, how many pranks George can think up on his own now."

"It's not as scary to one who used to be a prefect," Cedric pointed out. He stood close to Harry, their shoulders touching, and helped pour more juice.

"Everyone's mystified as to why I came out here to live alone," Harry said.

"You couldn't very well tell them that your dead Tri-wizard competitor, also your secret boyfriend, was actually not dead and had turned Unspeakable and was promptly banished from England after the war so as not to reveal classified ministry information." Cedric turned and handed out the flutes of juice.

"I'd genuinely thought you were dead at the time," Harry said so the others couldn't hear.

Stephanie and her friends had retreated to the den, casting Harry and Cedric shocked looks, to have a whispered, frantic conversation. Some of Cedric's friends on the day staff looked alarmed. Most of Harry's friends on the night staff, however, seemed to be adjusting the fastest.

"When did this happen?" Chantelle asked. "I thought you two didn't know each other."

"Cedric is a filthy cradle-robber and hit on me when I was fourteen," Harry said. He kept his voice low, because the residents were notorious eavesdroppers and liked to nose into staff members' private lives.

Cedric managed to look scandalized. "Me? Filthy cradle-robber? As if --"

Harry affected a scarily accurate imitation of Cedric's voice. " 'You know the prefects' bathroom on the fifth floor? It's not a bad place for a bath. Take your puzzle and...mull things over in the hot water.'"

Nicola guffawed. "You _said_ that to him?"

"That was a genuine piece of advice," Cedric protested. "I meant it all in the name of good sportsmanship."

Chantelle leered. "Prefects' bath? That's sportsmanship all right."

Cedric spluttered. "Really --"

"What's a prefect?" Mark asked.

Nicole hastened to explain, and Harry reflected that it hadn't been such a bad idea to come to the party after all. Cedric cast him a smile, and Harry smiled back, his heart thumping in his chest.

It was strangely exhilarating, to know that his friends knew who he was in love with and that, for the most part, they were okay with it.

When the supervisor returned from sorting out the problem between the residents - Cedric reported that some of the girls had ended up in a verbally vicious row and were in serious need of punishment - she noticed the strange tension that hung between Stephanie and the girls in the den and the rest of the gang in the kitchen, but no one would tell her what it was.

The Christmas party ended soon after that, and the various coworkers drifted out of the house, alone or in small groups.

Harry and Cedric parted ways with Chantelle and Mark beside Mark's car.

"That was certainly unplanned," Cedric said, straightening his scarf and waving as Mark and Chantelle drove away.

"Perhaps, considering Stephanie's unsubtle attempt on your virtue, it was a good thing." Harry glanced over his shoulder to where Stephanie and her friends hovered beside Stephanie's car, shooting both boys dark looks. "When you told me how much she pestered you at work, it was all I had not to come storming in and hex her to bits."

"I think she'll cease her decidedly unwanted attentions now," Cedric said. "Now come on - how about we put Chantelle's suggestion about mistletoe and my scarves to good use?"

Harry tapped his chin with mock thoughtfulness. "Tied up with your scarves under some mistletoe - I think it's an excellent plan, Unspeakable Diggory."

Cedric laughed and leaned down to kiss Harry on the mouth. "I'm glad you approve, Harry Potter."

Harry arched into the kiss for a bit, then pulled back and said, "What, I don't get a cool title?"

"Your name is a title in and of itself," Cedric said. "Now come on - don't you want your Christmas present?"

"I always want my Christmas present," Harry murmured, burrowing into Cedric's embrace.

Cedric ruffled Harry's hair and made a half-hearted attempt to pull free. "I'm not your Christmas present - well, not all of it. Besides, it's still Christmas Eve here, so you'll have to wait a bit."

"No fair, tempting me and then begging off," Harry said. Then he glanced over Cedric's shoulder and said, "Uh-oh."

"That usually means a gang of rogue Death Eaters has come upon us," Cedric said. "Dare I turn around?"

"No Death Eaters," Harry said, "though the result may be just as bad." He tugged Cedric around to see, and both of them gazed at the crowds of girls gathered at the windows facing the street who stared at the two boys with the wide eyes.

Cedric leaned down and kissed Harry again, slowly and thoroughly this time, before he pulled back. Then he caught Harry's hand and tugged him toward his motorbike.

"Come on, before our Christmas pudding goes bad."

Harry allowed himself to be dragged along. "You made Christmas pudding? You're turning into Molly Weasley." Once he was seated on the back of Cedric's bike, he turned, waved, and called out a bright "Merry Christmas!" to the staring girls, and then he and Cedric roared off into the twilight.


End file.
